If
His coming was to be like lightning, sudden, visible, and
unmistakable, how could it also be at hand for His original audience? Because the lightning was not meant to
describe a globe-crossing sky event thousands of years later, but
rather the shocking and undeniable judgment on Jerusalem in AD 70. The phrase at hand means imminent.
Jesus told His disciples multiple times that some of them would live
to see it (Matthew 16:28, Matthew 24:34). The "lightning"
imagery matches the nature of that judgment, swift, powerful, and
impossible to ignore. It wasn't global in geography, but it
was global in significance, God's covenantal judgment on the Old
Covenant world. So yes, it could be both like lightning and at hand,
because it was fulfilled in their generation just like Jesus said.
By Dan Maines
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